Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-31

power to resist this great delusfou OF
Christianity. Thomas Paine, the god
of modern skeptics, his birthday cele-
brated in New York and Boston with
great nthusiasm-Thomas Paine, the par
agon of ible-hsters-Thomas Paine,
about whom his brother infidel. William
Carver, wrote in letter which l have at
nv house, saying that he drank quart of
rum day and was too mean and too dis
honest to pay for it-ThOmas Paine, the
adored of modern infidelity- Thomas
Paine, who stole another mans wife in
England and brought her to this land
Thomas Paine, who was so squalid and
so loathsome and so drunken and so
profigate and so besstly in his habits,
sometimes picked out of the ditch, some
times too filthy to be picked out-Thomas
Paine, one would have thought that he
could have been depended on for stead
fastness against this great delusion. But
no. In his dying hour, he begs the Lord
Jesus Christ for mercy.
Powerful delusioD, all-conquering de-
fusion, earthquaking delusion of the
Christian religion. Yea, 1t goes on, it is
so IMPERTINENT,
and it is so overbearing, this chimera of
the gospel, that having conquered tire
great picture galleries of the world, the
old masters and the young masters, as l
showed in former sermon, it is not sat
istied until it has conquered the music of
the world. Look over the programme OF
that magnificent musical festival few
years ago in New York and see what were
the great performances, and learn that the
greatest of all the subjects were religious
subjects. What was it one night when
5000 voices were accompanied with vast
number of Instruments? Israel in
Egypt" Yes. Beethoven deluded until
be wrote the High Mass in D Major
Haydn deluded with this religion until he
wrote the Creation" Handel deluded
until he wbote the oratorios of "Jephthan"
and esther" ard "Saul" and "Israel in
Egypt" and the "Messiah." On the
closing night 5000 deluded people singing
of a delusion to 5000 deluded hearers.
Yes, this chimera of the gospel is not
satisfied until it goes on and builds itself
into the most permanent architecture, so
it seems as if the world is never to get
rid of it. What are some of the finest
buildings in the world? st. Paui'-, st.
Peters, the churches and cathedrals of all
ChristendOnI. Yes, this impertinence of
the gospel, this vast delusion is not salts
fed until it projects itself, and in one
year gives, contributes, $G,250 600 to
foreign missions, the work of which is to
make
OUNCES AND FOOLS
on the other side of the world-people
we have never seen. Deluded doctors
220 physicians meeting week by week in
To-, ha T,,
Circle, to worship God. deluded lawyers
the late Lord Cairns, the highest legal
authority in England, the ex-adviser OF
the throne, spending his vacation in
preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to
the poor people of Scotland. Frederick
T. Frelinghuysen, once the Secretary of
State of the United States, an old
fashioned evangelical Christian, an elder
in the Reformed church. John Bright, a
deluded Quaker. Henry Wilson, the
Vice President of the United States, dying
q deluded Methodist or Congregstionalist.
Earl of Klntore dying a deluded Presby-
terian. The cannibals in South Sea, the
Bushmen of Terra del Fuego, the wild
men of Australia, putting down the knives
of their cruelty, and clothing themselves
in decent apparel-all under the power of
this delusion. JudsOn and Doty and
Abeel and Campbell and Williams and the
5000 missionaries of the cross turning
their backs on home and civilization and
comfort, and going out amid the squalor
of heathenism to relieve it, to save it, to
help it, toiliDg until they dropped into
their graves, dying with no earthly COM
fort about them, and going into graves
with no appropriate epltaph, when they
might have lived in this country, and
lived for themselves, and lived luxurious
ly. and been at last put into brilliant
sepulcher. What delusion !
Yea, this delusion of Christian religion
shows itself in the fact that it goes to
those who are in trouble. Now, it Is bad
enough to cheat q man when he is well,
and when he is prosperous; but this re-
hgion comes to man when he Is sick,
and says: "You will be well again after
while; you are going into land where
there are no coughs and no pleurisies and
no consumption and no languishing; take
courage and bear up" Yea, this awful
chimera of the gospel comes to the poor
and it says to them: "You are on your
way to vast estates and to dividends al
ways declarable." This delusion of Chris
tiauity comes to the bereft, and it talks
of reunion before the throne and of the
cessation of all sorrow. And then to show
that this delusion will stop at absolutely
nothing, it goes to the dying BIT d and fills
the man with anticipations. How much
better it would be to have him die with
out any more hope than
SWINE, RATS AND SNAKES.
That is all. Nothing more left of him.
He Will never know anything again.
Shovel him under! The soul is only a
Superior part of the body, and when the
body disintegrates the soul diSintegrates.
vacancy, everlasting blank,
obliteration. Why not present all that
beautiful doctrine to the dying, instead of
with this hoax, this swindle of
the Christian religion, and filling
the dying man with articipations of
another life, until some in the last hour
have clapped their hands, and some have
and some have sung, and some
have been so overweight with Joy they
could only look ecststic. Palace gates
opening, they thought; diemonded coro-
nets flashing, hands reckoning, orches-
tras sounding. Little children dying &C.
tually believing they saw their departed
parents, so that, although the little chill
dren had been so weak and feeble and
sick for weeks they could not turn on
their dying pillow, at the last, in par
oxysm of rapture uncomfortable, they
sprang to their feet and shouted, "Mother,